Winterbottom laments Championship finish
Ford's Mark Winterbottom is left to fight for second in the 2014 V8 Supercars Championship, after Holden hero Jamie Whincup today secured the points that will see him awarded the trophy at the grand finale in Sydney.
Winterbottom led the title fight early this season after a stellar performance in New Zealand - which he describes as his best ever start to a Championship - but once Whincup clawed back at Queensland Raceway, the Pepsi Max Crewwent through a rough patch and continued to slip away.
"It's been a tough year. We've had good cars and our team deserves some credit for how well we started the year," Winterbottom said post-race.
"It's a tough Championship, we fell away a little bit, in that middle bit, and it got tough.
"Sometimes you can luck the setup and go forward, and sometimes you can dig yourself deeper. We probably dug ourselves deeper, now I think we're starting to come back out of it - good speed at Bathurst, brush over the Gold Coast and good speed here."
Winterbottom - who led the first three laps in the second race at today's Plus Fitness Phillip Island 400, but could not hold off a charging Whincup - said it wasn't just one event to blame for the deficiency in Championship points.
"You don't just blame one round - we were bad for a patch there," 'Frosty' said.
"It's disappointing because this was the best start we've ever had. So there was a point there, a couple of rounds where you lost points, but if you had a quick car it didn't matter.
"The fact that other teams jumped us and we dropped behind a bit was the concern.
"It's disappointing, but ... it's a Triple Eight car first in the points, a Triple Eight car third and a Triple Eight car fourth, you know you're doing a good job because you're breaking it."
With the team earning back-to-back Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 wins - this year with Chaz Mostert as the lead driver, last year Winterbottom - Frosty believes FPR is still improving.
"The last couple of years we have as a team and we just have to get better, we just have to keep improving.
"We did it at the start of the year - we know we can beat them. But if you fall behind a little bit it can have massive consequences... it is what it is, but you deal with it. It was the best chance we had."
The gap has now widened to 461 points between Whincup and Winterbottom, with a maximum of 450 awarded across the last four races of the season.
Winterbottom now needs to hold on to second place - Red Bull's Craig Lowndes is looking to snatch that after eclipsing Shane van Gisbergen today, just 44 behind.
Frostyfinished today's second race in third position, behind Whincup and Lowndes.
